For these cravings of our earthly nature conflict with the Spirit, and the Spirit with our earthly nature--they are two contrary principles--so that you cannot do what you wish.

The sins of our earthly nature are unmistakable. They are sins like these--unchastity, impurity, indecency,

Even these men who are circumcised do not themselves keep the Law; yet they want you to be circumcised, so that they may boast of your observance of the rite.

Making the most of every opportunity; for these are evil days.

These things are only the shadow of what is to come; the substance is in the Christ.

These are the things on account of which the Wrath of God comes,

Over all these virtues put on love; for that is the girdle which makes all complete.

Joshua, who is called Justus, also sends his greeting. These are the only converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the kingdom of God; I have found them a great comfort.

I, Paul, add this greeting in my own handwriting. Remember these chains of mine. God's blessing be with you.

These persecutions will vindicate the justice of God's judgment, and will result in your being reckoned worthy of God's Kingdom, for the sake of which you are now afflicted;

These men will pay the penalty of unutterable Ruin--banished 'from the presence of the Lord and from the glorious manifestation of his might,

And it is because they have not aimed at these things that the attention of certain people has been diverted to unprofitable subjects.

who will make use of the hypocrisy of lying teachers. These men's consciences are seared,

and they discourage marriage and enjoin abstinence from certain kinds of food; though God created these foods to be enjoyed thankfully by those who hold the Faith and have attained a full knowledge of the Truth.

Dwell upon these things in your teaching.

Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that your progress may be plain to every one.

I charge you solemnly, before God and Christ Jesus and the Chosen Angels, to carry out these directions, unswayed by prejudice, never acting with partiality.

and incessant wrangling on the part of these corrupt-minded people who have lost all hold on the Truth, and who think of religion only as a source of gain.

That is why I am undergoing these sufferings; yet I feel no shame, for I know in whom I have put my faith, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until 'That Day.'

and while they retain the outward form of religion, they will not allow it to influence them. Turn your back on such men as these.

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so do these people, in their turn, oppose the Truth. Their minds are corrupted, and, as regards the Faith, they are utterly worthless.

How true that saying is! And it is on these subjects that I desire you to lay especial stress, so that those who have learned to trust in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing good. Such subjects are excellent in themselves, and of real use to mankind.

has in these latter days spoken to us by the Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

for, in a passage referring to the seventh day, you will find these words-- 'God rested upon the seventh day after all his work.'

For he intended us to find great encouragement in these two unchangeable things, which make it impossible for God to prove false--we, I mean, who fled for safety where we might lay hold on the hope set before us.

(These priests, it is true, are engaged in a service which is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly realities, as is shown by the directions given to Moses when he was about to construct the Tabernacle. 'Look to it,' are the words, 'that thou make every part in accordance with the pattern shown thee on the mountain.')

while above it, and overshadowing the Cover on which atonement was made, are the Cherubim of the Presence. But I must not now dwell on these things in detail.

While, then, it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly realities to be purified by such means as these, the heavenly realities themselves required better sacrifices.

Otherwise, would not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as the worshipers, having been once purified, would have had their consciences clear from sins?

But, on the contrary, these sacrifices recall their sins to mind year after year.

And, when these are forgiven, there is no further need of an offering for sin.

All these died sustained by faith. They did not obtain the promised blessings, but they saw them from a distance and welcomed the sight, and they acknowledged themselves to be only aliens and strangers on the earth.

I beg you, Brothers, to bear with these words of advice. For I have written only very briefly to you.

Your gold and silver are rusted; and the rust on them shall be evidence against you, and shall eat into your very flesh. It was fire, so to speak, that you stored up for yourselves in these last days.

Destined for this before the beginning of the world, he has been revealed in these last days for your sakes,

For, when these virtues are yours, in increasing measure, they prevent your being indifferent to, or destitute of, a fuller knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Surely the man who has not these virtues is shortsighted even to blindness, and has chosen to forget that he has been purified from his sins of the past!

So I will do my best to enable you, at any time after my departure, to call these truths to mind.

For he received honour and glory from God the Father, when from the Glory of the Divine Majesty there were borne to his ears words such as these-- 'This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I delight.'

These were the words that we heard, borne to our ears from Heaven, when we were with him on that Sacred Mountain.

These men, however, like animals without reason, intended by nature to be caught and killed--these men, I say, malign those of whom they know nothing, and will assuredly perish through their own corruption,

These men are like springs without water, or mists driven before a gale; and for them the blackest darkness has been reserved.

Now, since all these things are in the process of dissolution, think what you yourselves ought to be--what holy and pious lives you ought to lead,

Therefore, dear friends, in expectation of these things, make every effort to be found by him spotless, blameless, and at peace.

It is the same in all his letters, when he speaks in them about these subjects. There are some things in them difficult to understand, which untaught and weak people distort, just as they do all other writings, to their own Ruin.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.'

My Children, these are the last days. You were told that an Anti-Christ was coming; and many Anti-Christ's have already arisen. By that we know that these are the last days.

For these are the Tidings that we heard from the first--that we are to love one another.

You, my Children, come from God, and you have successfully resisted such men as these, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

that of the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood--and these three are at one.

Like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns near them, which gave themselves up to fornication, and fell into unnatural vice, these angels now stand out as a warning, undergoing, as they are, the punishment of aeonian fire.

Yet in the very same way these men, too, cherishing vain dreams, pollute our human nature, reject control, and malign the Mighty.

But these men malign whatever they do not understand; while they use such things as they know by instinct (like the animals that have no reason) for their own corruption.

These are the men who are blots upon your 'Love-feasts,' when they feast together and provide without scruple for themselves alone. They are clouds without rain, driven before the winds; they are leafless trees without a vestige of fruit, dead through and through, torn up by the roots;

To these men, as to others, Enoch, the seventh in descent from Adam, declared-- 'See! the Lord has come with his hosts of holy ones around him,

These men are always murmuring, and complaining of their lot; they follow where their passions lead them; they have arrogant words upon their lips; and they flatter men for the sake of what they can get from them.

These are the people--animal and unspiritual--who cause divisions.

To the Angel of the Church in Ephesus write:-- "These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and walks among the seven golden lamps:--

To the Angel of the Church in Smyrna write:-- "These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died, but is restored to life:--

To the Angel of the Church in Pergamus write:-- "These are the words of him who holds the sharp two-edged sword:--

To the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write:-- "These are the words of the Son of God, 'whose eyes are like flaming fire, and whose feet are like brass':--

To the Angel of the Church in Sardis write:-- "These are the words of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars;--I know your life, and that men say of you that you are living, though you are dead.

He who conquers shall be clothed in these white robes, and I will not 'strike his name out of the Book of Life'; but I will own him before my Father, and before his angels.

To the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia write:-- "These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds 'the Key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one opens':--

To the Angel of the Church in Laodicaea write:-- "These are the words of the Unchanging One, 'the Witness faithful and true, the Beginning of the Creation of God':--

And round the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these I saw twenty-four Councillors sitting clothed in white robes; and on their heads they had crowns of gold.

These four Creatures have each of them six wings, and all round, and within, they are full of eyes; and day and night they never cease to say-- 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, our God, the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who shall be.'

And, whenever these Creatures give praise and honour and thanks to him who is 'seated on the throne, to him who lives for ever and ever,'

Then, within the space between the throne and the four Creatures, and in the midst of the Councillors, I saw, standing, a Lamb, which seemed to have been sacrificed. It had seven horns and seven eyes. (These eyes are the seven Spirits of God, and they are sent into all the world.)

And, when he had taken the book, the four Creatures and the twenty-four Councillors prostrated themselves before the Lamb, each of them holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense. (These are the prayers of Christ's People.)

Then one of the Councillors turned to me and said 'Who are these who are robed in white? and whence did they come?'

'My Lord,' I answered, 'it is you who know.' 'These,' he said, 'are they who come through the Great Persecution; they washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

Through these three Curses a third of mankind perished--because of the fire, and the smoke, and the sulphur that issued from their mouths;

But those who were left of mankind, who had not perished through these Curses, did not repent and turn away from what their own hands had made; they would not abandon the worship of 'demons, and of idols made of gold or silver or brass or stone or wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk';

These men are represented by 'the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth.'

These men have the power to close the heavens, that 'no rain may fall' during the time that they are teaching; and they have power 'to turn the streams into blood, and to smite the land with any Curse,' whenever they will.

Those who live on the earth rejoice over them and are merry, and they will send presents to one another, because these two Prophets brought torments upon those who live on the earth.

After three days and a half 'the life-giving breath of God entered these men, and they stood up upon their feet,' and a great terror took possession of those who were watching them.

These are the men who never defiled themselves in their intercourse with women; they are as pure as virgins. These are the men who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed as the first-fruits of mankind for God and for the Lamb.

and men were scorched by the intense heat. They blasphemed the Name of God who controlled these Curses, yet they did not repent and give him praise.

These kings are of one mind in surrendering their power and authority to the Beast.

Therefore in one day shall these Curses befall her--death, misery, and famine, and she shall be utterly consumed by fire; for mighty is the Lord God who condemned her.

The merchants who sold these things, and grew rich by her, will stand at a distance weeping and wailing, horrified at her torture, and crying--

Then a voice said to me 'Write-- "Blessed are those who have been summoned to the marriage feast of the Lamb."' And the voice said-- 'These words of God are true.'

And he who was seated on the throne said-- 'See, I make all things new!' And he said-- 'Write this, for these words may be trusted and are true.'

He who conquers shall enter into possession of these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.

It had a great high wall, in which were twelve gates; and at these gates there were twelve angels, and there were names inscribed on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the Israelites.

Then the angel said to me-- 'These words may be trusted and are true. The Lord, the God that inspires the Prophets, sent his angel to show his servants what must quickly take place;

It was I, John, who heard and saw these things; and, when I heard and saw them, I prostrated myself in worship at the feet of the angel that showed them to me.

'I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear testimony to you about these things before the Churches. I am the Scion and the Offspring of David, the bright Star of the Morning.'